Oregon DHS director outlines budget, IT and staffing constraints; highlights resilience grants and family-preservation pilots

At an informational hearing Jan. 23 before the House Committee on Early Childhood and Human Services, the director of the Oregon Department of Human Services told committee members the agency serves more than 1.5 million Oregonians and faces major technology, staffing and capacity challenges as it prepares the governor’s recommended 2025–27 budget.

The director framed agency work around “whole well‑being,” saying services must address social determinants such as housing, food and health care while recognizing that “no state agency…can provide is a sense of belonging and a purpose in life.” That framework underpins priorities the director said include improving customer service, modernizing legacy IT systems, strengthening the provider network and expanding emergency‑response capacity.

ODHS overview and budget profile The director told the committee ODHS reaches roughly 1,570,000 Oregonians through programs that include child welfare, self‑sufficiency benefits, aging and people with disabilities, vocational rehabilitation and developmental disability services. The agency operates from 173 buildings statewide (148 customer‑facing storefronts), organized into 16 districts, and reported that about 61% of its funding comes from federal sources, with Medicaid identified as the largest single funding stream.

The director said nearly 60% of the agency’s budget is concentrated in two program areas that serve older adults and people with disabilities and that more than 90% of the legislatively approved budget is distributed into communities as direct assistance, provider payments or direct services.

Technology and the Oregon Eligibility Partnership The director described the Oregon Eligibility Partnership (OEP) as a single eligibility system that lets Oregonians apply for 17 different benefit programs through one portal and said it is now the largest IT system the state owns. She warned the system still draws data from legacy mainframes and COBOL‑era programs, constraining new customer solutions and interactive features. She said the agency’s workload model for eligibility roles is funded at about 55%, which the director linked to prolonged phone hold times and benefit delays.

SNAP error review and customer outcomes On renewals and federal reporting, the director said Oregon kept 98.7% of Medicaid renewals up to date during the post‑pandemic redetermination period and that 80.5% of people kept the same benefits; she cited a Kaiser Family Foundation comparison showing Oregon among the top states for renewals as of August 2024. She also told the committee that Oregon received a penalty exceeding $15 million tied to a higher national payment error rate for SNAP; roughly half of that sum, she said, will be reinvested into the system to reduce future errors.

Programs and pilots highlighted The director outlined several initiatives to expand access and resilience: - Summer EBT: A permanent summer electronic benefit transfer program provides $120 in grocery benefits per eligible child. The director said about 343,000 Oregon children received summer EBT in the most recent distribution, totaling about $41 million. - Resilience hubs: The Office of Resilience and Emergency Management will distribute $10 million in resilience‑hub grants this year after receiving 700 applications requesting roughly $173 million; the director said the department expects to award about 96 grants and set aside $2 million split across the nine federally recognized Oregon tribes, which may also apply for additional funding. - Mobile access: ODHS is piloting two mobile benefit‑navigation units (one in Coos and one in Washington County) that serve senior centers, markets, shelters and libraries; the director said roughly 600 people were served in Coos County (July 2023–Dec. 2024) and about 900 in Washington County (Aug. 2023–Nov. 2024). - Family preservation pilot: ODHS and self‑sufficiency programs are collaborating on intensive, coaching‑based interventions designed to stabilize families before crises that can lead to child‑welfare involvement. The director said a private foundation granted $9 million to expand that work, and early local results reportedly show reductions in foster‑care stays and hotline calls. - Vocational rehabilitation (VR): The director noted VR is a small part of ODHS’s budget but has a high impact, and she described local examples—such as a school‑based transition program—where VR and community partners supported young people toward employment and independence.

Capacity, safety and workforce concerns Committee members pressed the director on provider capacity for behavioral health and residential treatment. The director acknowledged closures and staffing gaps, saying Oregon has fewer high‑security residential treatment beds than in prior years and that staffing shortages and rising private‑sector wages make hiring difficult. She also said ODHS has seen vandalism and criminal activity affecting staff and clients at some facilities and stressed the need to balance regulatory oversight with provider support.

Q&A highlights and next steps Committee members asked about rural‑urban differences in service delivery, whether benefits recipients are transitioning off assistance into stable employment, and how the agency will address the SNAP error rate and system modernization. The director said the agency is processing community feedback from statewide listening tours and will provide the committee with more detailed, synthesized data once analysis is complete; she offered to return with a deeper briefing later in the session. Representatives both praised the agency’s Medicaid renewal work and urged clearer answers about residential treatment capacity and the causes of staffing shortfalls.

Why it matters Committee members heard that ODHS is a large, federally dependent safety‑net agency whose performance affects more than one in three Oregonians. The agency’s ability to modernize its eligibility systems, recruit and retain providers, and expand emergency and placement capacity will shape service continuity for children, older adults and people with disabilities during the next biennium.

The hearing closed with the chair scheduling more in‑depth ODHS briefings later in the session on employment‑related day care, aging and disability policy, and two public hearings on bills related to newborn safety devices and other items.